source: main/waeup.ikoba/trunk/README.txt @ 12444

Last change on this file since 12444 was 12432, checked in by Henrik Bettermann, 10 years ago

Fix docs. Copy 'How To' into README.txt.

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1What is WAeUP.Ikoba ?
2*********************
3
4Ikoba, which means 'bucket' in Bini language, is a multifunctional Application and Registration Web Portal to provide transparent and comprehensive information about application and registration processes.
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6Ikoba is the second flagships of the West African eUniversity Project (WAeUP) Group. See http://www.waeup.org to learn more about WAeUP.
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8Installation instructions can be found in the User Documentation (docs folder in the file system).
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11Ikoba and Kofa - Similarities and differences
12---------------------------------------------
13
14Ikoba could be described as a customer registration, document verification and contract conclusion portal. Customers are being registered (customer registration workflow), documents are being verified (document verification workflow) and contracts are being applied for and concluded (contract workflow).
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16Ikoba's user interface and its usability is very similar to WAeUP's Student Management System Kofa. This comprises:
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18- Responsive webdesign (by Bootstrap)
19- User management
20- Permissions and roles
21- Authentication
22- Portal configuration
23- Data import (batch processing)
24- Data export
25- Logging
26- Reporting
27- Localization
28- Mandates
29- Notification and mailing
30- Data tables
31- etc.
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33But in Ikoba there are completely new content components (models), views (including pdf slips) and controlling components.
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35
36Company
37-------
38
39The main web application and container class is called 'Company' which corresponds to the University container in Kofa.
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41Products
42--------
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44Among others, a company includes a 'products' container which contains the products offered by the company. A product could be a license, a visa or any purchasable merchandise/article. In the base package a product has eight attributes:
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46- unique product id,
47- title
48- contract title
49- contract_category
50- options (set of product options)
51- valid from
52- valid to
53- terms and conditions
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55Products don't have a workflow.
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57Public Documents
58----------------
59
60Public documents, which are likewise put up in a 'documents' container, are meant for publishing content on the portal. There are three types of public documents:
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62- PDF documents
63- HTML documents
64- REST documents
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66The first can be used to provide pdf files for download. The second and third can be used to create multilingual static html pages on the portal. HTML documents expect html coded text as input, REST documents expect reRtructuredText which is transformed into html. Public documents have a publication workflow with two states: created and published. Only published documents can be seen by anonymous users.
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68Customers
69---------
70
71The company container also contains a 'customers' container which again contains all customers of the company. A customer object itself is also a container, containing all the documents and contracts owned by the customer. Beyond that, a customer is also an authenticated user of the system with a user account adapted to each customer object.
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73The attributes of a customer in the base package are: customer id, firstname, middlename, lastname, sex, email, phone and a unique registration number which can be set by the company.
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75Customers have a registration workflow with four states: created, started, requested and approved.
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77Customer accounts can be temporarily suspended. Although suspension is not part of the workflow it does appear in the customer's workflow history.
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79Only approved customers can conclude contracts (see below).
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81Customer Documents
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84Customers are requested to upload scanned documents and images required e.g. for the conclusion of contracts. Each uploaded file is connected with a document object which carries the metadata of the scanned document. In the base package a customer document has only a title, a unique document id and an md5 attribute. The latter contains the md5 checksum of the connected (binary) file after verification.
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86Documents have a verification workflow with five states: created, submitted, verified, rejected and expired.
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88Various document classes can be implemented and selected by the customer to make customization as flexible as possible.
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90Verified documents cannot be edited or manipulated. The md5 checksum proves the genuineness of the uploaded file.
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92A pdf document slip can be downloaded. The slip is composed of a covering page and the scanned document badged by a watermark.
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94Contracts
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97Contracts are being concluded between the company and the customer. The customer applies for a contract by
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991. selecting a proper form (= contract class),
1002. selecting one of the products which belong to the contract class,
1013. filling the contract form,
1024. uploading required documents,
1035. submitting the documents for verification,
1046. linking the submitted documents on the contract form,
1057. submitting the contract form for approval.
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107Company officers verify the documents and finally approve the contract which means that the contract is concluded. The contract can also be rejected or expire.
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109Each contract class belongs to a contract category. The contract category defines the subset of products which can be selected when configuring the contract (see Products section above).
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111A contract in the base package has a title, a unique contract id, one document reference, one product reference and list of product options.  A customized contract can have several document references, but it can only refer to a single product offered by the company. The product options determine the fees to be paid before a contract can be concluded.
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113A contract can only be submitted if all documents attached to the contract have been at least submitted for verification.
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115The contract workflow has the following states: created, submitted, approved, rejected and expired.
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117A pdf contract slip can be downloaded.
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